WINTER SPORTS ROUND-UP: WHAT’S TO COME

By TUCKER CERGOL

With fall sports coming to an end, students at Washingtonville High School turn their attention to winter sports and activities.  The three that most people will be attending and keeping up to date with are boys’ swimming, wrestling, and basketball.  All three teams have the promise, and the potential, to create some serious competition in and outside of the regular season.

With girls’ swimming coming to an end, it’s the boys’ turn to take a dip in the pool.  There are some very talented athletes on this team, and they will be looking look to make a big splash this year. Captains, Jack Palmer and DJ Quinones, shared their aspirations for this upcoming season.   DJ expressed, “I just want to lead the team to a fun, successful season. The more we work, the farther we’ll go in the season, so it’s important to start the year with high expectations, and then try and exceed those.”

TUCKER CERGOL FOR THE WIZARD WEEKLY 

Being more of an individual sport, there were some swimmers that made certain competitions last year that were uncommon to any other athlete.  All three captains, DJ, Jack, and Thomas Vojta made sections last season, and they fully expect to do the same this year. Jack explained, “We all have the same goal of getting the first banner for the boys’ team.  I think I, personally, will be back in sections because ever since I started swimming in my freshman year, I have been hurt, and this is my first season without an injury so I have a full season to reach my full potential.”

Like the swim team, wrestling can also be considered more of an individual sport.  Although these athletes are part of a team with players that encourage and push each other to improve and win, each person holds their own record in their own weight class, and can only match up against certain opponents. 

Coming back from major knee surgery, senior captain, Max Kissack, gave some insight on how he felt he was going to perform this year. “I feel like I will be at 99.9% this season.  I’ll need to be a little more cautious in certain positions.  My personal goal is to be a section 9 champion at my weight class this year.”

Last, but certainly not least, is basketball.  Unlike wrestling and swimming, this is a sport that requires a tremendous amount of teamwork, communication, and love for one and other.  This season, the team is very young with a total of six seniors out of fourteen athletes.  Expectations are high as the Wizards enter the season with their first game this Friday at Port Jervis.  Captains Brendan O’Leary and Ryan Johnson plan to lead this team to uncommon territory for the Wizards. 

Senior Basketball players, Devin Lewis, Andrew Fitzpatrick, and Parker Gallacher will look to end their careers on the high road.  Devin Lewis, who is coming back from an ACL injury that happened during the offseason, is especially eager to play.  Devin gave insight on how hard he needed to work to bounce back from such an impactful injury.  “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever been through.  At the start, I was told that I could not compete this season, however, if I worked hard, I could somehow make it back in six months, which is enough time to play this season.  What motivated me to stay on task was that I knew this was my last year to shine as a Wizard, and I really wanted to help my boys reach our goal.”

This winter includes many interesting and competitive teams and athletes that everyone should be on the look-out for.  Some individual performances along with great team play will be the driving force behind the Washingtonville Wizards’ sports teams, and fans should expect big things as the snowflakes begin to fall.